voL.1v.] Zhe Hopkins Seaside Laboratory. 59 
establishment, is the Zoological Station at Naples. The success 
of this great institution is due to the enthusiasm and ability of 
its founder and director, Dr. Anton Dohrn. ‘This institution has 
been often described, so that something of its work is very gen- 
erally known. But it is not well known that in Europe there is 
a large number of well-equipped and well-supported seaside lab- 
oratories. It is from these laboratories that the most important 
biological work of the present time is issuing. 
In our own country the history of the seaside laboratory, while 
it contains some noteworthy undertakings and bids fair to have 
a brilliant career, is more briefly told. All naturalists are per- 
fectly familiar with the first notable step in this direction made 
by Louis Agassiz at Penikese. The natural impetus which came 
to American biological studies from the inspiration engendered 
by this movement can never be overestimated. Since the death © 
of Agassiz and the closing the school at Penikese, other 
very successful laboratories have been maintained on the 
Atlantic Coast, the results of which have been of great value to 
biological science. The most important and successful of these 
thus far have been those of the Marine Biological Laboratory 
and the Laboratory of the U.S. Fish Commission at Wood's 
Holl, Mass., and the one maintained by the Johns Hopkins Uni- 
versity, which has been moved from point to point. Popular 
accounts of these have appeared at various times. The Marine 
Biological Laboratory, under the direction of Dr. Whitman, has 
been especially successful. It has developed very rapidly into a 
place where a considerable number of biological investigators 
with a large number of students assemble every year both for 
research and elementary study. This station is already regarded 
justly as a very important one and it contributes largely to the 
current of biological thought in this country. The commendable 
ambition of its eminent director, if backed as it should be, and 
-po doubt will be, by proper financial support, will make the 
station at Wood’s Holl even more a center for biological research 
than it is at present. 
With all this activity in biological study pursued by modern 
- methods, there is every reason why the splendid advantages of 
the Pacific Coast should be made to contribute to the progress of 
